


wouldst thou

by MMagpieMcCorkle



Series: got yours, got you, got mine, got me [1]
Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Anne & Dan Watch The Witch (2015), Dysfunctional Relationships, F/M, Gen, Healing, Healthy Relationships, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Post-Movie, Trust, Unfortunate Comparisons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-13 21:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16479893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MMagpieMcCorkle/pseuds/MMagpieMcCorkle
Summary: wouldst thou like the taste of butter?a pretty dress?wouldst thou like to live deliciously?wouldst thou like to see the world?dost thou see a book before thee?remove thy shift.i will guide thy hand.-Dan and Anne watch a movie. Anne draws comparisons. Dan is there. He gets it, kinda.





	wouldst thou

**Author's Note:**

> so i watched the witch (2015) for the first time today and i have DRAMATIC headcanons about anne that i'm still trying to develop
> 
> so

The TV stand is mostly ornamental. So's the TV. And the DVD and Blu-ray collection. If Netflix had a physical form outside of the screen, that would be mostly ornamental, too. Anne's just not much of a sit-down-and-watch person. Reading she can do, and work is a necessity. "Praise be to the capitalism machine," she's snarked more than once. Eddie laughed at that. And now Dan does.

Eddie still laughs at things. _Genuine_ laughter, that is. He'd laughed on the phone earlier.

Anyway. Dan suggested movie night. Yes, screens strain the eyes, and yes, he's a medical professional so yes, he should know better than to indulge in an abundance of all that. Not that he's constantly staring into the same kinda screens, mind you-

"I get it, alright." Anne snorts, raising her arms in surrender and almost tips her wine on the sofa. That'd be hell to scrub out. White wine might work, but she doesn't want the smell of fermented grapes to linger where she sits, thanks. "Just sit down."

Besides, she's had her eye on this movie for a while. Only heard of it, and it's difficult not to know of at least the outline by now (not to mention the Wikipedia article - sue her, she reads lifeless outlines before watching the brushstrokes in motion sometimes). And Dan _had_ mentioned on their first date that he's a "bit of a fan" of horror movies. All sorts, even the shitty ones. That'd been one immediate tick in the "potential long-term partner" column.

(It's been eight months since things ended with Eddie. It's been four months since she started seeing Dan. It takes eighteen months for the high of a romantic relationship to plateau. What happens then? She's a little worried. Maybe it's worry over nothing.)

Dan puts the movie on and snuggles up close. Anne leans into him.

-

"So...?"

"... I liked it. It was... scary."

"Oh yeah-"

" _Uncomfortable_."

"Definitely."

"... I didn't like Katherine." Anne gulps down the last of her wine, which is the last of the bottle, and replaces the glass on the coffee table. She contemplates saying more. About why, and how. Thomasin is a completely uncomfortable familiarity, like a physical manifestation of teenage wishfulness. Childhood, too. Adulthood, too. But definitely her more volatile period of youth, when she was finding her stance, her gait, testing her strength, juggling her school time and her free time and her sister and her **mother** and her wishful, fantastical thinking. Yes, she could go into all that. Potentially scare Dan off, too. Even if he never rises to bait, never makes accusations, rolls with the fact that Venom is still around. Dan is practically perfect.

"Yeah, I didn't like her either." He squints. "I mean, I _guess_ I get why she turned on her _daughter_ in the end-"

"Mm." Is it petulant to interrupt? She wishes she had more wine. Is there more in the fridge? "I think that was just the inevitable result."

"What? Everyone but her dying?"

"No." She snuggles closer to Dan, feet drawn up on the sofa. Her body sighs, pressing against firm warmth. Present. Loving. She's a little dizzy-headed, like the whole darn thing might just roll off. "That Katherine turned on her."

"Oh."

"She never liked Thomasin."

"Oh... right, I see."

She hopes not. She hopes he doesn't. Dan threads his hand, his fingers with hers. Good thing about Dan's hands: they're never clammy, nor sweaty, and his nails are never too long nor too short. He's all sorts of Just Right. She hums quietly when he kisses her temple. Maybe he's reading into things. Maybe not. Maybe too well. Maybe too _wrong_. She's not quite sure which one she'd prefer, if she tells him.

-

Anne does tell Dan, five minutes later, after an entire glass of water to clear her head some.

"My **mother** was a... Katherine."

For once, Dan is on the verge of unreadable, his face partially obscured by the blue outside and shadows inside. Neither of them have turned the bedroom light on. She feels safer without it on. She feels naked with all her clothes, with her tip-of-the-iceberg honesty, the weight of pre-college-escape lurking beneath.

Dan holds her hand. She wants a different kind of comfort. Something different, something fantastical, something that erases it all and scrubs her clean of it. It'll never happen, but she wants it all the same. Dan still holds her hand, rubbing circles with his thumb. That's nice, at least. He's all sorts of Just Right. She squeezes his hand; he can let go. He doesn't.

"Thanks."

"It's not a problem. You can tell me anything."

A bitter part of her, her teenage self that could've been Thomasin who signed away her name to the Devil himself and killed her mother with no real remorse, wants to snap that words are just words and there is no healing. But she knows Dan too well by now. Well enough. Words are portals, sometimes. Invitations. _You can tell me anything_ means _only if you want to_.

"And I... kinda get it. What you mean."

And that -- his confession -- means more to her than her bitterness. She squeezes his hand again. _You can tell me anything, but only if you want to._

**Author's Note:**

> i've got some DRAMATIC headcanons about dan too
> 
> so watch out


End file.
